Why are Memphis motorists so unskilled? (Millington: schools, license, station)
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Not the ones I interacted with in Brooklyn. The vast majority of the time I saw the little yellow lights on were in one of two circumstances: a) someone stops short at an intersection to make a left and turns on the signal after stopping, or b) they were put on their emergency blinkers to double park.
I'll give New Yorkers credit for one thing: they seem to be better at yielding to emergency vehicles than most NJ drivers I interacted with.
OK, I'll give you that. The outer boroughs are ridiculous when it comes to double parking. But they will single when they pull over to double park.
Prime example this morning of Memphis driving stupidity that I pointed out earlier in the tread:
Hubby and I were headed out this morning from the Poplar Ave area to a location out I-40, so we jump on 240 NORTH. It's freaking Saturday morning -- who expects a traffic snarl? Coming off Poplar onto 240, traffic is backed up. Ah crappers. We merge, only to putter along with everyone else at 5 miles an hour. Get up closer to Walnut Grove and there's a wreck ON THE SOUTHBOUND SIDE. We get 10 feet past where the police lights are (again, on the other side/direction of the expressway) and BAM, traffic clears. Why? Why do people feel the need to crawl at 5-10 miles an hour just because they see police lights...on the other side of a concrete barrier. Why?
We have city streets with more lanes than this section of the expressway. I wonder if expanding to one or two more lanes in both directions would alleviate some of the daily mess. Though, here I am complaining about relatively short snarls for me on 240 north some mornings, when 240 south practically every day comes to a dead stop in that area and backs up I-40 (and likely 385) inbound for miles. I really would lose my freaking mind if I had to travel 385 or I-40 inbound to I-240 every morning. Lose. My. Freaking. Mind.
Prime example this morning of Memphis driving stupidity that I pointed out earlier in the tread:
Hubby and I were headed out this morning from the Poplar Ave area to a location out I-40, so we jump on 240 NORTH. It's freaking Saturday morning -- who expects a traffic snarl? Coming off Poplar onto 240, traffic is backed up. Ah crappers. We merge, only to putter along with everyone else at 5 miles an hour. Get up closer to Walnut Grove and there's a wreck ON THE SOUTHBOUND SIDE. We get 10 feet past where the police lights are (again, on the other side/direction of the expressway) and BAM, traffic clears. Why? Why do people feel the need to crawl at 5-10 miles an hour just because they see police lights...on the other side of a concrete barrier. Why?
We have city streets with more lanes than this section of the expressway. I wonder if expanding to one or two more lanes in both directions would alleviate some of the daily mess. Though, here I am complaining about relatively short snarls for me on 240 north some mornings, when 240 south practically every day comes to a dead stop in that area and backs up I-40 (and likely 385) inbound for miles. I really would lose my freaking mind if I had to travel 385 or I-40 inbound to I-240 every morning. Lose. My. Freaking. Mind.
So you say u want to pass by a wreck at 60 mph?
Wont you say drive safe when your son/daughter starts drving for the first time in their life? The wreck can be someone son/daughter, think about it.
Patience is the answer.....my wife does the same thing and she is impatient. Just think about the people in the wreck, parents worrying about their children, children caring about their old parents.
Give it a thought, dont mean to point that you are wrong. Stuff happens and we got to live with it....
No hard fellings.
--The Nemi
Last edited by the_nemi; 09-18-2010 at 09:34 PM..
Reason: added more comments....
Wont you say drive safe when your son/daughter starts drving for the first time in their life? The wreck can be someone son/daughter, think about it.
Patience is the answer.....my wife does the same thing and she is impatient. Just think about the people in the wreck, parents worrying about their children, children caring about their old parents.
Give it a thought, dont mean to point that you are wrong. Stuff happens and we got to live with it....
No hard fellings.
--The Nemi
First off, yes, I do expect to be able to continue unimpeded on my way past a car wreck that doesn't involve me or block my path, is already being attended by the proper authorities, and doesn't need my nosy attention to inspect it and approve it before driving on.
The "wreck" I'm talking about looked to me like a bad fender bender. Those involved looked to be standing outside their vehicles talking to the police. There were no ambulances that I saw. Anyone on my side of the expressway slowing down was doing so to rubberneck or freak out over police car lights. The "wreck" was on the southbound side of the concrete divider of the expressway and physically affected northbound traffic in no way, shape, or form beyond the people being nosy and blocking traffic. It certainly didn't present anyone on the northbound side with a good reason to drive 5 miles an hour and clog traffic for miles back, only to speed up after they passed what they could gawk at.
You can take people's aggravation on this subject as "impatience" or "uncaring" if you wish. Perhaps you've given the original poster of this topic an answer to his question of why people drive so badly in Memphis. Are Memphians just such caring people or so emotionally sensitive that they have to slow down to a crawl and take emotional stock of their lives and families when they encounter a car wreck that doesn't affect directly their path? Perhaps so.
This thread is completely uninformed, if not misinformation. The original poster will never get back the minute of life that it took to post. Memphis drivers are now ranked amongst the top 25% of the United States' largest 200 cities. Please limit your post to actual/ factual information to make better the quality of City-Data's Memphis forum.
I wasn't talking about stats. Also, I never said Memphians cause a lot of accidents. Please comprehend what you read better next time. I'm speaking from real-life experiences living in Memphis. If they tested Memphians on driving skill alone, they would fail miserably. You're obviously one of the unskilled drivers.
This thread is completely uninformed, if not misinformation. The original poster will never get back the minute of life that it took to post. Memphis drivers are now ranked amongst the top 25% of the United States' largest 200 cities. Please limit your post to actual/ factual information to make better the quality of City-Data's Memphis forum.
Those stats are for Memphians insured with Allstate. How many Memphians are insured with Allstate? I'm not. There's no mention of the uninsured and those insured with other companies.
Also, fender benders are not good indications of regional driver safety since they are much more strongly correlated to traffic density. I would suspect Memphis has a pretty high number of traffic fatalities per number of accidents, which would indicate driving in the city is less safe statistically than the article would indicate.
Why Memphis motorists are so unskilled?
1) There isn't much traffic. Drivers just are not forced to develop defensive driving habits because there just isn't much congestion compared to other cities.
2) Lanes are wide and provide the illusion of safety at high speeds. The lifestyle is slow paced and so drivers tend to day dream while driving at high speeds.
3) Young drivers begin driving as early as 15. Requirements for getting a license are pretty minimal in large part because not having a car severely cripples one's mobility in Memphis. I think this began as a rural tradition.
It's a city where you can get away with being an inattentive driver (many do) for quite some time before a serious accident.
I wasn't talking about stats. Also, I never said Memphians cause a lot of accidents. Please comprehend what you read better next time. I'm speaking from real-life experiences living in Memphis. If they tested Memphians on driving skill alone, they would fail miserably. You're obviously one of the unskilled drivers.
The original post and this post are completely unfounded, pure crap.
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